A Golden Opportunity Missed

The change from Lockheed to Honeywell was a golden opportunity to change the failing culture at Sandia. A management shakeup could lead to a change in attitudes. Maybe Sandia could regain some of its glory. Maybe it could stop acting like a creaky old ship in high seas.

Maybe.

But instead, Honeywell took the easy road, the road to continuing mediocrity at the lab. It decided that a management shakeup wasn’t really necessary.

Of course, the former vice presidents were all booted. They were Lockheed employees, not real Sandians. And they were replaced by Honeywell people (with some imports from LANL management).

But below that, little has changed. Most center directors convinced Honeywell that they knew where the skeletons were buried and could keep them hidden, or that they never, ever did anything to surprise or embarrass upper management. And the managers and senior managers, no matter how incompetent, have secure jobs for now.

So for most Sandians, it’s just business as usual. The lab has a new name, but it is just the same as it ever was.